On Blue Light Bulbs

I'll never forget that moment.

We entered a major home improvement store as we always seemed to be doing as homeowners. It was early spring and the Autism Awareness campaigns were in full swing. My then pre-adolescent son saw it first. It was a sign encouraging customers to “Light it Up Blue” by purchasing blue light bulbs.

He said, “Look, Mom! They are celebrating Autism.”

His face changed as he continued to read on. The sign said autism was a “crisis.” It explained how proceeds would benefit Autism Speaks search for cures and prevention of autism.

My son understood the word cure enough to know it implied he was sick. He looked at me despairingly and asked why they thought he was sick. I told him what I believe – Autism Speaks is absolutely clueless about the life of an autistic person and people are fearful of what they don't understand. He looked puzzled. He wanted to know why they didn't just ask autistic people. I explained how Autism Speaks refused to allow autistic people to have a voice in the organization. He shook his head and said how wrong that was.

Then he asked me the question I feared. What did they mean by prevention? Why would they prevent autism? My head was spinning. How could I explain this to my beautiful, perfect child? I blurted out that they cannot prevent autism because it is not a disease, that this was just a way to get more money.

Though not the full story, I could not bear to tell him the rest - that Autism Speaks was heavily funding research that would encourage families to terminate pregnancies. That they were hell-bent on discovering genetic clues so as to advise families against becoming pregnant. That this heavily funded organization wanted to eliminate people like my son from existence through eugenics. That this billion dollar organization intended to find a magic pill that would change my son into something less than, not him.

My heart sank like a rock into the pit of my soul. My son was devastated and deeply hurt and once again, I could not protect him. We left the store that day without what we came for. And we left with a little less hope for the future of humankind.